All posts tagged Nasdaq Composite

The Nasdaq Comp is making another run at breaking 3000 — this time on the way down.

The tech-heavy index is down by more than 5% from last month’s highs, led lower by several underperforming tech titans. Earnings weakness has been the main culprit for the Nasdaq’s latest struggles.

At last glance, the Nasdaq reversed earlier losses and inched up 0.1% to 3009, while the Dow and S&P 500 notched small declines.

Should the recent weakness continue, a move below 3000 would mark the first time the Nasdaq dropped below that level since early August.

“We should still expect greater than normal weakness out of the tech sector this week…which should make it difficult to witness too much of a turnaround in the market right away,” says Mark Newton, chief technical analyst at Greywolf Equity Partners.

The blue-chip Dow isn’t the only index celebrating a big, round number this week. The Nasdaq Composite just edged above 3000 for the first time since December 2000.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq trading at levels last seen in the early 2000s brings back memories of the dot-com boom. With plenty of hype surrounding newly minted tech IPOs such as LinkedIn, Pandora, Zynga and Groupon, some are wondering whether history is on the verge of repeating itself.

But that’s a discussion for another day. The Nasdaq briefly pierced 3000 and hit an intraday high of 3000.11 before reverting back and recently trading around 2990.97.

The Nasdaq is already up 15% this year and 28% off the early-October lows. By comparison, the Dow is up 6.5% this year and 22% since early October, while the S&P 500 has gained 9% in 2012 and 24% from October.

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